This magazine is intended to present people’s stories about their personal relationships with God from their point of view. We endeavor to have a diversity of perspectives in the testimonies we share from people who identify themselves as followers of Christ. Furthermore, we carefully and prayerfully consider the content of the stories we tell, as well as the character of those who tell them. People who share their testimonies with us have experienced God’s love in real ways, and our encouragement for you, is that you also can experience His love wherever your journey takes you.
Stories from the Storm
BEN COX: JESUS PRESENCE IN THE STORMS OF LIFE JESUS WILL HELP YOU CALM YOUR STORMS IF YOU WILL TRUST HIM AS LORD
Written by Ben Cox
WESLEY SMITH: THE BAPTIST’S IN THE STORM AND IN OUR REGION
Written by Ben Cox with Wesley Smith
SETH NORRIS: IT IS WORTH IT!
Written by Ben Cox with Seth Norris & Caroline McCrorey
TERRY HENRY: THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS
Written by Terry Henry
JOE INGHAM: LOVING LIKE JESUS IN THE STORM
Written by Ben Cox with Joe Ingham
LUTHER HARRISON: A STORM LIKE NO OTHER IN OUR OWN BACKYARD
Written by Ben Cox with Luther Harrison
Ben with 11th grandchild 1 year old Olina
Dear Readers,
A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Friday Sept 27, 2024 is a day that will live in infamy for those of us who happened to be here on that day! And just like the rest of you who live and work in these mountains, we had to change our plans and priorities for this magazine and all kinds of other things.
We, like many others, needed some miracles to happen in our lives and this magazine you are holding in your hands or reading online is just one of many!!
Before that dreadful day we were excited about the line-up of stories that we were going to present to you on the week of Thanksgiving. After that day we knew we needed to pivot to tell the many MIRACLE STORIES that emerged from a time of great suffering for many.
I am saddened that we could not get this into your hands before this year ends, but excited to release it in a NEW YEAR where many of us find ourselves humbled and grateful to begin anew with a fresh determination to keep loving and helping each other as we move forward into a new year.
With that in mind, I want to share with you 2 things that the Holy Spirit laid on my heart for the Church in our Region on 10/31/24, 35 days after it landed:
1. When all hell breaks forth as it is doing in our region, our nation and our world, that’s when our Creator God desires for all Heaven to break forth in the Earth as well. He does this by revealing His
Presence and glory along with His love and mercy and graciousness and compassion in and through His Church!
In times of suffering, the Lord wants us to realize that our greatest need is to be in a right relationship to God and the rest of the world that He created through the Peace and Goodwill that we have come to know through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!
2. In my opinion, based on God’s Word, Jesus is saying to us: “Church, it’s time to get your house in order by learning how to die to yourselves and truly learn what it means to made alive in Christ, to reveal My Glory and My Goodness and My Love and Compassion to a watching world that desperately needs what only I can give!!”
Jesus said it like this in Matthew 5:14-16:
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
In the stories that you are about to read you will see Jesus shining His light through all kinds of people in all kinds of ways.
May it fill your hearts with faith to enter into an unknown future with a joy and peace that is only found in Jesus! And may you experience Grace and Peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ben with Samaritan’s Purse staff and volunteers at Alliance Bible Fellowship on 12/13/24
JESUS PRESENCE IN THE STORMS OF LIFE
Jesus Will Help You Calm Your Storms If You Will Trust Him as Lord
By Ben Cox
ON
10/15/24,
18 DAYS AFTER THE STORM, I BEGAN TO WRITE THIS INTRODUCTION
September 27, 2024 will forever be emblazoned in the psyche of those residing in Northwestern NC, Eastern Tennessee and into Virginia as the worst storm of the century.
Hurricane Helene destroyed roads, felled trees, caused unprecedented floods and landslides, sweeping away homes and lives and livelihoods in its wake!!!
Some areas were obliterated, while others were relatively unscathed, except for temporary loss of power or internet. But, everyone of us was impacted by this event in ways we will never forget.
• For those who are lost
• Those who lost everything
• And those who love the Lord, but are seriously suffering or confused by the carnage, our prayer rises up to you O Sovereign Lord, that your amazing Grace and Peace be poured out on all us in the ways we need.
Those of us who know and love Jesus are not necessarily surprised when these types of things happen in the world because Jesus told us they would. Nevertheless, we were shocked to the core by the storm’s fury.
A PRAYER FOR OUR READERS
On 12/11/24 as I began to write the final draft for this edition, my wife and I prayed that the Holy Spirit would bless this magazine to minister to all who read these pages and look at these pictures.
ON 10/15/24 INTRODUCTION CONTINUES
Today on October 15, 2024 it’s been 18 days since Hurricane Helene upended many of our homes, businesses and lives. Last night my sleep was abruptly interrupted at 2 AM with apocalyptic dreams where great storms and turmoils were continuing to be unleashed on the earth.
Immediately I realized that this nightmare was more than just a symptom of seeing too many flood scenes on TV or on social media feeds.
I realized that this was a spiritual dream with spiritual implications, so I lifted up a prayer to God and tried to go back to sleep.
However, sleep did not come easily, because the dream was very disturbing. Plus, the weight of the responsibility of producing meaningful, God-honoring stories for this edition of our magazine weighed heavy on my mind.
Ben and Connie Cox at home with friends
Thank God, I was finally able to drift off to sleep.
When I awoke the Holy Spirit was clearly speaking to me, giving me the guidance I needed for the days in front of me pursuing stories from the storm.
The Lord simply spoke to my heart, “this is the day that you are to set aside to begin to write your intro to your 2024 Winter Edition about Jesus’ Presence in all of life’s storms.” And He reminded me of this important passage of Scripture that very much applies to what we are experiencing as humans on Planet Earth.
In Matthew 24:3, Jesus’ closest disciples asked him this question: “....what will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?”
Here’s how Jesus, the Prophet, responded to that question as recorded in Matt. 24:4-14:
“Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.
Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Though the full impact of Hurricane Helene in our region struck on 9/27/24, the rains began to fall on Wednesday, 9/25/24 and It was then that my regular morning Bible devotional readings happened to be The Gospel of Luke in chapter 8 where Luke tells his account of Jesus Calming the Storm in vs. 22-26. So I read the passage in Luke 8, Matthew 8 and in Mark 4. Here’s how Mark’s account tells about this epoch event in human history:
JESUS CALMS THE STORM
Another washed out bridge and apocalyptic scene right off Howard’s Creek Road in Boone
Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me.
At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Mark 4:35-41:
That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along, just as He was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.
A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
When I read this passage on Sept 25, 2024, I had no idea what was about to hit us when the full force of Hurricane Helene descended on the night of September 27, 2024. But I do know this: Jesus will help you calm whatever storms you are facing now or will face in the future, IF YOU PUT YOUR FAITH IN HIM!!!
SOME PICTURES FROM THE STORM
Tree damage in Ben’s neighborhood.
Another washed out bridge and devastating damage.
Piles of wind and landslide trees washed down from creeks. One of the many missing boats, canoes and kayaks.
Sleeping areas in many Sunday School classrooms throughout the region for disaster relief workers from all over the USA.
THE BAPTISTS IN THE STORM AND IN OUR REGION
As Exemplified by Three Forks Baptist Association in Watauga County
BEN COX: Today is Friday October 4, 2024, just one week after Hurricane Helene rocked our region in unbelievably devastating ways. It’s late in the day and I am sitting here with Wesley Smith. I have had the privilege
center is to be able to make sure that all of our churches have access to the supplies that they need to minister to their community.
The events that have transpired from the time the
to get to know Wesley over the years, and if you could see his eyes right now, you would see they are very tired.
Wesley is the Missions Director of the Three Forks Baptist Association and we’re sitting here in Rutherwood Baptist Church in East Boone, NC, which is a distribution center for this neighborhood. Is that correct?
WESLEY SMITH: Yes. This is a distribution outlet for the neighborhood and the 32 churches that make up our association. So, our desire out of this distribution
rain started falling hard on Wednesday September 25, 2024, until the proverbial bomb went off on September 27 hit all of us really hard.
There were several of our churches that were able to immediately respond to the needs of their community, but there are many churches that have not been able to due to storm damage they sustained. Therefore, they are so thankful for the donations of time and resources from lots of people who helped them .
Wesley Smith at the distribution center.
“The events that have transpired from the time the rain started falling hard on Wednesday September 25, 2024, until the proverbial bomb went off on September 27 hit all of us really hard.”
We have resources to be able to give to churches so that they can minister and show the love of Jesus as they encounter people in their communities. That’s what we desire for them to do. We don’t want people to come to the association; we want people to come to the church.
THE HISTORY OF THE THREE FORKS BAPTIST ASSOCIATION
B: Could you give our readers a brief explanation of what The Three Baptist Association is, along with a brief testimony of how you and your wife Bonnie came here for her to be the principal of Valle Crucis Elementary School and for you to be the Director of Missions with the Association.
W: Yes, so the Association has been in existence since 1841 when 10 churches came together to emphasize evangelism, missions, prayer and Christian education.
And from that point on, churches in the Three Forks Baptist Association churches have been working together to do that, following the Great Commission that Jesus gave His Church to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit found in Matthew 28:19.
We do that in conjunction with what Jesus emphasized as the 2 Greatest Commandments of God’s Word to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:37-40 contains the whole context of Jesus teaching)
So, we serve as a catalyst to help churches do that, to keep that a focus and to also encourage them to do that, but to provide support for pastors, staff members, church leaders.
So, we provide many opportunities for pastors to network, to learn, to grow, and church staff as well. We provide them the opportunity to network, learn and grow together. And then we also provide support for deacons and for Sunday school teachers and small group leaders and all the like, to really help a church be who God’s called them to be. That’s what we we’re here to do. And each church has a different call. Each church has a different way of doing that.
So that’s one of the things I love about the association. It is a family of churches that we all have the same goal to lead people to know who Jesus is so that they will trust Him as Savior and Lord of their life.
In regard to how I got I came to be the Director of Missions here in Boone, it goes back to when I made a sincere commitment to Christ at the young age of 6 years old in the Baptist Church I grew up in. And here are some key milestones along the way: I became a Sunday School teacher at 15, a deacon at 18, graduated from college in 2001, married my high school sweetheart and stepped into full time ministry in 2003.
For 20 years I served in direct church ministry as a youth and children’s minister and then as an associate pastor just before becoming the DOM to serve the Greater Cleveland County Baptist Association in 2016. That’s where I was serving when the Lord opened the door for me to come to Boone.
BONNIE SMITH’S CALL TO BE A PUBLIC-SCHOOL PRINCIPAL
But my wife’s been in education since we got married. She was a PE and health teacher, and then really sensed the call on her life to be an administrator.
She had been an assistant principal at a school for about 10 years and after about four or five years of doing that, she really had a strong sense to be a principal.
So, we began to seek the Lord about that, and she felt led to look elsewhere outside of Cleveland County, which is probably 15 or 20 minutes from where we both grew up.
That’s what led her to apply for the principal position at Valle Crucis Elementary School And on August 1, 2019, the board approved for her to be here, and she moved less than two weeks later, and started school.
When she pursued that calling, we agreed together that if God calls you to be somewhere else, I believe he’ll call me to go with you! And we trusted God for her to move there and for me to remain in Cleveland County until the Lord opened something here for me.
It took 18 months, but in August of 2020, I started a conversation with the Three Forks Baptist Association search team. They had been looking for a direc-
tor of missions, and they felt like it was a good fit. So, in October of 2020 at that semiannual fall meeting at the Blowing Rock First Baptist I answered God’s call to serve here, and we’ve been here ever since.
FROM THE COVID DISASTER TO NOW
B: So you came to Boone in 2020 when the world was emerging from another disaster of a worldwide pandemic called COVID. And who would have thought you would be dealing with a disaster the magnitude of what we’re experiencing now.
So here we are at Rutherwood Church and it’s literally breathtaking how much food is here at this distribution center. Where did this food come from?
W: Well, it’s not just food. We have paper products, tools, flashlights, batteries, cleaning supplies, trash bags, and really anything that anybody could need along with the non-perishable foods.
We had a donor that worked out a deal with Walmart–not our local Walmart, but Walmart
I’VE NEVER EXPERIENCED ANYTHING LIKE THIS. I HAVE BEEN ON MISSION TRIPS, BUT I HAVE NEVER DONE A WHOLE LOT WITH DISASTER RELIEF.
headquarters from D.C.–and we received a 53-foot loaded tractor trailer of food, 26 pallets. So that’s where a lot of this food came from. We had an army of people that unloaded it.
We’ve had another company that brought us two truckloads of water. Along with the water, they brought
us some skid steers to use. So, we’ve been using those skid steers to offload pallets of donations and help on job sites with recovery efforts. But by using that skid steer, some folks here at this church got us a pallet jack, and about 10 to 15 young people unloaded that entire truck in an hour. There’s been a steady flow of things coming in. By the time many of you are reading this, I am sure you will recall that Boone had been inundated with supplies. So much to the fact that we had to pause because all of our distribution points were full. The high school was full of stuff. Summit pickleball was full of stuff. Mount Vernon Church was early in the game of receiving donations and they were full. Howard’s Creek was also early and had to pause on taking donations. Everybody was full. I spent more time last Thursday and Friday redirecting resources because we really had not yet been pushing them out as much as we had been getting them in.
The generosity of people during the storm has been unbelievable— from financial support, supply donations, and volunteers I was just on the phone with a guy that is at one of our Baptist on Mission (by the way, we have had 15 sites across western NC set up through them doing clean up, recovery, feeding, etc.) who told me they had to close their volunteer portal because they were so full. We have volunteers that are signed up to come here through at least mid-November if not longer. And, not to mention, Samaritan’s Purse had over 1,000 volunteers on the ground Saturday, October 5th. It looked like a Clemson date with all those orange shirts.
B: Yeah, Samaritan’s Purse, the orange shirts, came in my neighborhood, and it was amazing how much they did in a very short time before they moved to their next assignment.
National Guard Helene response.
W: I’ve never experienced anything like this. I have been on mission trips, but I have never done a whole lot with disaster relief. I certainly have not lived through a disaster. This has been something to witness in terms of seeing how all this has come together, initial response, and how things are ramping down as infrastructure returns and power gets turned back on. It has been something to say the least.
THE VALLE CRUCIS FLOOD EXPERIENCE
B: So, since your wife is the Principal of Valle Crucis Elementary School can you give us a first-hand account of how y’all handled that?
W: My wife and I, along with about four or five maintenance guys for the county schools, were at Valle Crucis Elementary during the hurricane. Starting Wednesday evening, before the storm hit, we were getting tons of rain. So, that Wednesday night we started pumping water out of the school and we pumped water all night into Thursday. I got about two hours of sleep. Thursday, I went to work and then went back to the school that evening. During all that time, maintenance staff had been rotating in and out. We had these vac machines that were sucking water up and we were dumping it out the windows of classrooms that were flooding. So, Thursday we did that all night again into Friday. Friday morning the power went out. We lost the ability to pump water, and we also lost communication. So, had we been able to communicate we would’ve known the maintenance director said you all just need to go on. But we did not get that message and stayed there.
side of the original store. So, we couldn’t go anywhere. We sat there until about 4:30 Friday afternoon until we finally decided to see if we could get out because the rain had subsided.
There were some folks that had cleaned up a mudslide near Broadstone and were able to use one lane so we followed them in my pick-up truck. None of us could find a way to Boone. We went Mast Gap to 321, but you couldn’t go 321 to 421 because 421 had several washed-out places before you got to Boone. We couldn’t go to Baird’s Creek because the bridge was washed out. Eventually we came back to Broadstone and Mast Gap and there was a caravan of people.
In the front was a big ole’ tractor with a guy lifted up in a bucket who had a chainsaw. There was a trail of about five or six cars behind him. The chainsaw guy would cut down a tree to create a path and we would all follow and just weave, and weave, and weave. He said they were on their way to Boone, and we could follow them. He had just made his own path down Broadstone. It was sketchy at best.
When I got over to Cove Creek and saw the destruction there, I was just blown away. As we passed it I saw people sitting on their porches on old 421 with no access to the main road. Their bridges were just gone. We finally made it to 105 and just went home.
B: So, your house wasn’t destroyed?
So, by the time all of that happened, Dutch Creek was flowing across the road at the Mast General Store Annex, which is to the left of the school. We couldn’t get out. There was a landslide that happened on the other
W: We didn’t have any damage at our house, but of course we didn’t have any power. Ironically enough, we did have water, but that didn’t last long. We came back to Boone on Saturday and stayed here, sleeping wherever we could find space.
To give you more of an idea of the damage in Valle Crucis, I think there were over 20 classrooms in Valle Crucis that flooded. The water coming off the backside
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers in action.
IT HAS BEEN BEAUTIFUL AND HEARTWARMING TO ME TO SEE THE CHURCH IN ACTION AND THE BEAUTIFUL UNITY AMONG CHURCHES.
just kept coming and coming. The Watauga River has a record of 29 feet and the gauge read 27 feet. We believe the gauge probably broke though. It was just wild to be out there and see it. I literally saw what many people have only seen in pictures.
There was a building that floated down Dutch Creek and ended up right in front of the annex store. There were also two or three campers from a campground that washed down there and just disintegrated.
B: Yeah, any of us that have been around the county have seen destruction that is just mind boggling. You have shared many stories that have been heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. I have lived here close to 50 years now. I have seen some storms, seen some hard snowstorms. But I have never seen anything like this. I don’t think any locals have. The biggest thing to rival this was the flood in 1916.
W: It has been beautiful and heartwarming to me to see the church in action and the beautiful unity among churches. You and I have been praying for that for a long time, and I’ve seen it happen over these past couple of weeks. For example, we had two churches that took severe damage. South Fork Baptist Church in Todd had their basement flood. They lost everything in their basement, including two or three of their HVAC units.
water and mud. Two or three different teams from Perkinsville Church went to both of those locations and helped get them cleaned up.
Howard’s Creek Church did the same, they went to Watauga Baptist in Seven Devils which had water in the basement. Then, Howard’s Creek sent a team into Avery County to work at Minneapolis Baptist Church which was hit hard. It has been awesome to watch. Mount Vernon Church has been feeding meals, serving as a distribution center, and encouraging the community all while sending teams out. I have been very thankful for all these churches’ responses. I can see love and care developing for one another.
Also, Brushy Fork had a tremendous landslide behind the back of their church that brought in a lot of
B: And, that’s translating over. It speaks very loudly to people that don’t know the Lord. We’ve always had this mandate from the Lord to rescue the perishing and make disciples of Jesus. Not disciples of our churches, right, but followers of Christ. Jesus shows up strong in the midst of suffering. I love what we’re hearing and what we are going to be telling: churches reaching out to help one another. Now, that’s the kind of Church the world needs to see!!
W. You often wonder if God is hearing you, especially on things you don’t see like how we have been specifically praying for the unity of the church. We’ve had some moments wondering, “is this ever going to happen?” And it is happening now in so many ways.
Ben Cox and Wesley Smith
W. Yates Jr. D. D. S. General, Esthetic and Implant Dentistry
IT IS WORTH IT
Written by Ben Cox with Seth Norris and Caroline McCrorey
BEN COX: I’m here with Seth Norris. Seth is the pastor at Perkinsville Baptist Church in Boone. But he’s also the Volunteer Fire Department Chief of the Deep Gap Volunteer Fire Department. Can you share a bit of your personal testimony of how you came to faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? And how did that lead you to become the pastor here? And how did that inform your decisions to become a member of Deep Gap Fire Department?
SETH NORRIS: I was in emergency management and fire service full time before I was a believer. I started volunteering right after 9/11 at age of 18 and that became my career path that I continued for several years. I was an adrenaline junkie for sure—still am. So, I ate it up. I started pursuing all the certifications I needed. I got my college degree in emergency management and ended up on hurricane task forces. I went to where disasters were; in many ways I viewed that as an important part of society, just doing good. That was the extent of my theology at the time. Growing up I wasn’t connected to a local church in a meaningful way.
My wife, Staci, is a lifelong baptist, she was the kind of kid who was in the church anytime the doors were
open. I saw a picture of her and knew I wanted to marry her. But, to do that I had to figure out what this odd devotion to the church was. When we started dating, I would have never denied God, or even Jesus as a historical person. My now father-in-law gave me a CD of Ray Comfort sermons, Hell’s Best Kept Secret and True and False Conversion. By the time he had given them to me I had started reading scripture, hearing sermons, and realized there was something special amongst the people at Staci’s local church. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the way people loved one another— it was John 17 in real life. At this time God the Father had started actively drawing me and the Spirit started to convict me. As a twenty-two-year-old, when I listened to Hell’s Best Kept Secret, Ray Comfort said that Hell’s best kept secret is to keep people comfortable in the church pew, believing they have a living relationship with Jesus, when, in fact, all they have is religion. This was the first time I had heard that church attendance and participation have nothing to do with a man’s heart. I was driving down the parkway listening and I stopped, it was the first time where I recognized and understood Ephesians 2:8-9, and that is that faith in Christ—faith alone—is the only thing that saves a
“HELL’S BEST KEPT SECRET IS TO KEEP PEOPLE COMFORTABLE IN THE CHURCH PEW, BELIEVING THEY HAVE A LIVING RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS, WHEN, IN FACT, ALL THEY HAVE IS RELIGION.”
Seth preaching at Perkinsville church.
man’s soul. The sufficiency of Christ, sovereignty of Christ, the goodness of Christ, all became real in that moment. There was no turning back.
The first thing I knew I had to do was tell others. I said to myself, “if I didn’t know this, and now I do, others have to know this.” I couldn’t help it; my life trajectory changed. I was saved at 22 when I understood the reality of sin, my sinfulness, and recognized grace not just conceptually but as grace that was given and afforded to me. I recognized Jesus isn’t just a historical dude like George Washington. I think a lot of people view Jesus like they do George Washington, they know he did good and is historically important. But the difference is critical, Washington did not step out of a grave. So, Jesus is living, and He is active. He sits at the right hand of the Father, and when the Father looks upon Seth Norris, He no longer sees Seth Norris, He sees the righteousness of Christ. I had to tell everybody that.
“I RECOGNIZED JESUS ISN’T JUST A HISTORICAL DUDE LIKE GEORGE WASHINGTON. I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE VIEW JESUS LIKE THEY DO GEORGE WASHINGTON, THEY KNOW HE DID GOOD AND IS HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT. BUT THE DIFFERENCE IS CRITICAL, WASHINGTON DID NOT STEP OUT OF A GRAVE.”
that time, I also did army chaplaincy. I didn’t really know what to do, so I was just doing stuff and sensing the Lord’s faithfulness to me in obedience. That ultimately led me to New Orleans Seminary in my late 20s and I knew it was time to deal with this–God’s call on my life.
Secondly, I expected the church to be amped about this message of hope but I found that over the years the church had become almost numb to it and so I felt led to do something about that. I think my call to ministry began the moment I was saved; I just didn’t have the language for it. But I just started. Within the first year of becoming a believer, I was teaching evangelism courses in the local church and taking teams out to share the gospel. I did fire service and emergency management. During
My diploma says I graduated seminary on July 28th, 2012, and my first day at Perkinsville was on July 29th. That’s God’s timing. I didn’t apply to Perkinsville Baptist Church. I had never even been in the building before; it was just a brick building with a steeple to me–which are everywhere. But my name was thrown in the hat by the search committee. I also knew that in mountain culture, particularly in Baptist life, I would be a square peg in a round hole. I wasn’t raised Baptist. I didn’t know who Lottie Moon or Annie Armstrong were. I didn’t know their language. But I did know that I loved historical Christian doctrine and the Baptist expression of faith. I became Baptist because of the Baptist Faith and Message, not because of the potlucks even though they are very good.
Mark Chaney, pastor at Howard’s Creek Church at the time, who has now passed, was mentoring me, discipling me. He was an unconventional guy himself, but he was the first guy to show me what discipleship was. Without him I wouldn’t have been able to pastor, or it at least would’ve taken longer. He discipled me through the whole journey. It was the power of discipleship. I think we have a lot of un-discipled Chris-
Seth, his wife, and five kids on Easter. (L to R: Staci Norris, Selah Norris, Parker Norris, Will Norris, Lyla Norris, Aliyah Norris, and Seth Norris)
tians. I think a lot of times what we may think is a false conversion is just an undisciplined faith.
S: The Church, and I am not talking about a church, I am talking about the Church, is the largest and most active disaster response and recovery organization in the world. It has been and will be. Here is the beautiful thing about it, the church is here to stay. As homes are mudded out, as lives are put back together, and lives are lost, mourned, and grieved, the church is here and it’s going to stay here as efforts turn into rebuilding. The church is the biggest response and recovery organization because disaster recovery is inherently theological. Whether or not it’s the church, the act of rebuilding from a disaster is biblical. So even FEMA is doing what we know as a redemptive act, putting back together what is broken and restoring what has been lost. The church doesn’t have to hide that fact. We are in the business of proclaiming the Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven and seeing the Kingdom come.
At Perkinsville our mission statement is, “To love what Jesus loves and do what Jesus does.” I have a strong inclination to think that Jesus would be mudding out houses, ministering to people, and being the hands and feet through this. We are just following his lead in that. We and others sent teams over to churches
to mud them out so they could become lighthouses in their communities.
On the Friday morning that the storm hit, I was working at the fire department, and I got a call from Todd Unzicker, the executive director of North Caroli-
THE
CHURCH, AND I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT A CHURCH, I AM TALKING ABOUT THE CHURCH, IS THE LARGEST AND MOST ACTIVE DISASTER RESPONSE AND RECOVERY ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD
na Baptist, asking “what do you need?” I said, “I don’t know exactly, but I know we are going to need disaster recovery teams and feeding operations.” By five o’clock that day I got a call that they were on the way. Within the first 72 hours we mobilized immediately as a church. We had specialized teams from churches across North Carolina arriving on our doorstep and we were deploying them to hard-to-reach places to make access so we could serve people. They were coming in fully self-sufficient for three days. They did not require food, lodging, bedding, anything. We were sending them out as far as Yancy County. We were working with Watauga, Ashe, Avery, Yancey, and even parts of Mitchell—the hard-to-reach places. These guys were prior military Christian brothers; so they came up in full sleeve tats and camo proclaiming the name of Jesus. I had told Todd we needed high speed guys who loved Jesus to come up with side by sides (a type of four-wheeler) and chainsaws. And they delivered. We also started delivering generators.
The first week we were doing these high-speed operations to gather intel, serve people, and figure out where to send people to work and serve. That’s just within our church. Churches all over Western North Carolina have stood up in different and similar ways. But it is even more than just local people. I know right now in our building we have Christians from all over the country sleeping here, and that’s not just happening here.
So, the church has staying power. There are so many wonderful organizations serving, but there is only one that holds the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. So, we bring not only mercy ministry, we bring not only food, water, mud-outs, and rebuilds, we bring with it the words of eternal life. There’s only one organization that can do that. We are here to stay. That is what the church needs to hold up to. We stay in the name of Jesus. We have been doing it for 2,000 years. So, we have the most experience.
Seth with his wife, Staci.
B: I heard you on a nationally televised interview a few days after the storm describing the checkerboard nature of this storm. Can you share a bit more about that and what you mean by that?
S: I know that multiple organizations have never responded to a disaster like this before, where you can’t get to the places you need to get to. After a typical, coastal hurricane you push the sand out of the way to get to a home. Here, you can’t do that. There is no road, it is washed out. There were a lot of landslides, which are categorized as earth movements. They are more like earthquakes. So you will have a perfectly undamaged home and 50 yards away a home will be washed off the mountain.
Helicopters have been everywhere to do damage assessment. There are communities like Lake Lure or Chimney Rock that are gone and have been absolutely devastated, but by and large throughout western North Carolina, it isn’t from one neighborhood to one neighborhood, it varies from house to house. The landslides are what make it so checkerboarded. Mountain flooding is different, the flooding roars. There is nothing
I
HAVE A STRONG INCLINATION TO THINK THAT JESUS WOULD BE MUDDING OUT HOUSES, MINISTERING TO PEOPLE, AND BEING THE HANDS AND FEET THROUGH THIS.
like it. It is very dependent on the rivers, creeks, and waterways. This is why the damage and needs assessments are taking so long. You have to enter literally door to door to figure out that this house flooded, and the next one didn’t.
B: Is there an example of a particularly dramatic rescue that you either participated in or know about that you could share with us?
S: Well, you know mountain folks are resilient and a little stubborn. I think there is a fine line between faithfulness and stubbornness. I can say that I am one. We sent a team out from Mercy Hill Church in Greensboro to a way-out mountain community in Avery county. They came across these sweet older ladies, several of them widowed, and gave them food. It was the first food these ladies had received since the storm hit. It had been almost a week. The team asked them if they would like to go to one of the shelters set up. In classic mountain fashion, they said they were good and figured there were probably others who needed it more. I have heard that statement a lot.
Baptist on Mission brought shower trailers as part of their set up. These trailers were not only for volunteers but also used to serve the community.
We’ve also had some hard stories. We mobilized a lot of college students—well over 100 the first day. There were times when they were talking to locals and saw some sad stuff. Some of them saw a body under the mud. For all the beautiful rescues, there have also been really grounding moments. The best and worst of humanity is seen in disaster. You better have a theology of suffering for a storm like this. We have had to teach that and show that.
B: Let’s talk about how you see your church moving forward from here. What is your collective church vision?
S: We have been reminded of how important it is to offer water and a meal to folks as a bridge to gospel conversations. We have been reminded of the power of mercy ministry, providing the physical needs to share spiritual truth.
Within a mile of our church building, 90% of the people are 24 years old or younger. A few years ago, we began to reflect on this. I tell folks all the time I am not a smart guy, but when I look around if 90% of the people are 24 or younger, Sunday mornings ought to reflect that. So, our vision became to equip every generation to reach the next generation. Just last night I spoke to our college students, and I told them “You’re not college students, that is not your identity, you are the church.” When I say church, it is a people called out, not a building or a thing. So, I think it has strengthened our vision.
This church has changed a lot particularly in the past five years and post COVID. At times when a church changes so radically, you have to say, “is it worth it?” And within the last two and half weeks it has been a resounding yes, it is worth it.
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THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS
By Terry Henry - Written
Several thoughts come to mind after losing power for 11 days in the mountains of North Carolina and basically camping out in the backyard. Not exactly camping out but more like “glamping” as we had a generator for our water and were able to sleep, if you can call it that, in our bed at night.
It was the “Best of times and the worst of times.” as Charles Dickens wrote in, “A Tale of Two Cities” and “These are the Times that try men’s souls” as the Kingston Trio sang in their song, The M.T.A. in 1959.
And this little story is not intended to make light of the utter devastation that surrounds us and the months and years it will take to return to a semblance of normal for many people in the Northwest region of North Carolina.
We have lived here for almost 40 years and have seen one storm after another come and go leaving property damage and loss of life. We were prepared more than many, but have never seen the onslaught of nature that was released more than a week ago.
Towns have been erased, bridges and roads broken and washed away, and many have been left with little or nothing. The outpouring of help has been phenomenal as many organizations and churches have come to the rescue.
on October 15th, 2024
I guess what is most amazing this time is the fact that some people lost everything and some only lost power for a couple of hours. This disparity is overwhelming to me, nascent reporter that I am. I don’t understand it and trying to figure it all out will probably never get me anywhere.
Like Charley, trapped in that train, I couldn’t get “out” even with all the effort I put forth in the form of keeping gas in the generator, cooking on the camp stove or Blackstone griddle and grabbing ice for the coolers
It’s been a while since I read Dickens, but the story of Charley and the M.T.A. is one I will always remember. As the song relates, Charley put 10 cents in his pocket, kissed his wife and family, and went to ride on the M.T.A. (Metropolitan Transit Authority in Boston) in order to go to work. The fare was 10 cents, which Charley paid and while in transit, was raised to 15 cents by a some government officials, and as a result, or so goes the song, Charley could never get off the train.
I am not quite sure what all this has to do with today, power back on and internet restored, but I will sharpen my pencil and try to find some answers for direction and meaning.
We have been through some rough times but nothing compares to the recent events. During any past snow and ice storm or high winds with 60 miles per hour gusts, and rain with moderate flooding, we always knew that in the end, it would all be over in a day or two and life would return to normal. Been there, done that, lived through it and didn’t lose everything in our freezers.
Water and heat were the priorities then, since most weather events took place during the winter, when frozen branches would fall into the electric lines. These events seemed to be hit and miss and were generally quickly corrected. But not this time. And not knowing when we would get power back, was a real struggle for me as we counted down the days and nights and tried to keep a positive perspective.
One of the highlights following our “ordeal”, was calling up Samaritan’s Purse after hearing that they were helping to restore order, which in my case was getting the huge tree off the roof of my crushed-in 10 x 12 foot shed. The gentleman I talked to said he would put me on the list and several days later I got a call early one Saturday morning. I figured a couple of guys would show up with chain saws and make quick work of it. The man on the other end of the line said they would be out in an hour or two and did I have parking. I said yes and was surprised when about 25 volunteers showed up and started hauling branches, and removing the tree from the shed and others that had been damaged. When they were finished, my yard and side lot was cleared and looked like I had hired a landscaper for the day. Before they left to help elsewhere, we gathered in my front yard, where I was presented with a Billy Graham bible each volunteer had signed with blessings and the group leader prayed for me and my family. Several weeks later, I got another call about picking up a supermarket gift card that was being presented to all the people Samaritan’s Purse had helped.
As the MTA song goes, Charley couldn’t get off the train and he rode through the subway forever and ever and was the man “who never returned”.
We have “returned”, though I believe that in my striving to keep things normal, I may have lost track of the big picture and the faith that comes with that way of thinking. It’s hard to let normal go and enjoy the journey, not knowing when or how long it will be that the circumstances around you prevail.
I have rolled up the extension cords, preserved the gas that is left over and emptied the coolers. I am sincerely thankful but with an edge that may or may not have been there long before any of this took place.
Now that things are more or less settled for me, I will need to reach out to volunteer and pray for those still in need, which is perhaps the answer to the question that I never fully asked but was there all along.
Samaritan’s Purse volunteers taking care of tree business at my house.
LOVING LIKE JESUS IN THE STORM
By Ben Cox with Joe Ingham
On Oct 24, 2024, Twenty-eight days after Hurricane Helene overwhelmed our region, I conducted a Zoom interview with Joe Ingham where he shares his testimony that led him to the High Country and how God manifested His Presence in Powerful Ways in the midst of the storm. –Ben Cox
Joe Ingham wears several hats as a pastor, bookstore manager, husband, father and more. When I interviewed him for this edition of The Journey magazine and website, our focus was on his role as the pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Newland, NC where Hurricane Helene’s damage was particularly severe. In addition to this, he and his wife Tiffany comanage Cornerstone Christian Bookstore here in Boone, NC.
When Hurricane Helene’s winds and torrential rains picked up on Thursday night September 26, 2024, Joe felt its impact as he was closing the store in Boone. Then he had to navigate treacherous roads and rising waters on his way home to Newland.
So, with that in mind, I asked Joe a four-part question:
• Will you share a bit of your personal testimony of how you came to faith?
• And how did that lead you into pastoral ministry and coming to Emmanuel Baptist Church?
• Also, how did you and Tiffany become managers of Cornerstone Bookstore?
• And finally, tell us about your experience with this storm at your personal residence in Avery County, the church building in Newland and the bookstore in Boone.
“I grew up in New Jersey, which I try not to tell a whole lot of people. But I am a Yankee converted to be a happy southerner.
“My mom had me in church my whole life and our church had a Christian school which I started in kindergarten and graduated high school there. I always tell people I was born, and the next service I was in the nursery.
“When the doors were open, I was at church. I didn’t miss much between Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Sunday school, etc. We had Awana on Friday nights. Then as a teenager I was involved in youth activities. My whole life revolved around church for the most part. I heard the gospel hundreds upon hundreds of times; at school and church we had all types of good Bible pumped into us. I knew every Bible story there was frontwards, backwards, up and down, all that sort of good stuff. But never really had a personal relationship with the Lord.
“One chapel service in school our pastor was preaching on hell. He was talking to us about how much we’ve been given and how we have had an opportunity to be taught the gospel while there were people in the world who have yet to hear the gospel. I had heard all the messages before, but that day it really got a hold of me. I went to talk to him after chapel in his office.
“My whole life revolved around church for the most part. I heard the gospel hundreds upon hundreds of times; at school and church had all types of good Bible pumped into us. I knew every Bible story there was frontwards, backwards, up and down, all that sort of good stuff. But never really had a personal relationship with the Lord.”
The cutest little volunteers.
“He led me to the Lord in 1989, so I was 13 years old when I got saved. I thank the Lord for that. I will never forget it. From that point on I have always been strong about knowing that I am saved, but it was a long journey for sure.
“As I got to high school, I kind of drifted away, so to speak. I was never a giant of the faith in high school, I knew I was saved but I still had the teenage ways in me. At graduation I really had no idea what I was going to do. I wanted to play baseball, but I wasn’t good enough for that. I didn’t know what I was going to do.
“In college I met my wife. I graduated in 1999, and she graduated in 1998, and she moved back to North Carolina to teach at her church’s school while I was in college for my senior year. We got married in June after I graduated and I became an assistant pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Mocksville, North Carolina.
Some of the church volunteers who worked for weeks unpacking and distributing donations.
“My father and I owned a baseball card shop, so I worked in the card shop. I had never really thought
“Then when I was in community college, I really felt God beginning to strongly work in my heart and tell me that I needed to be back in Bible college. So, I went back the next year with a new focus and more serious about it this time.”
about Bible College much, but my best friend was going and recommended I try it. So about two or three weeks before college started, I applied, got accepted, and ended up at Bible College right outside of Chicago in Northwest Indiana. I went there for a year. I didn’t really feel much there, so I came home and went to community college.
“Then when I was in community college, I really felt God beginning to strongly work in my heart and tell me that I needed to be back in Bible college. So, I went back the next year with a new focus and more serious about it this time. Through college I majored in assistant pastoral theology, mainly because I didn’t want to take Greek for pastoral theology, and I thought I would work with teenagers in youth ministry.
“I thought that was where we would be. I never really had any intentions of wanting to be the lead pastor of a church. In fact, it had never really crossed my mind. But, through the preaching and teaching of the pastor there, I began to feel the Lord working in my heart about that.
“One Thursday, I was out with my pastor and asked, do you think that I could ever pastor? And I told him where my heart was. He said, ‘hold that thought and let the Lord confirm it in your heart.’ So, God began to do just that.
“Later, I came back and told him I thought God really wanted me to pastor somewhere. He had some friends who contacted him about a church here in the mountains that was without a pastor and so he gave them my name. They asked me to come up and preach, so one Sunday I preached my first trial sermon at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Newland, NC.
“To my surprise they asked me to come back the next week and I did that for a few weeks until they asked me to stay for a special service on Sunday night. We got voted in 100% and we accepted the call in October of 2003.
“So my wife and I, along with our daughter who was 11 months old, moved to the mountains. We fell in love instantly with this place. We were here for about four and a half years and then God began to work in our heart again, and not in the way that I wanted.”
“But you know, we view Cornerstone as the Lord’s work; it’s a ministry. We don’t view it as just a business and they don’t view it as a business. Like I said, George and Megan’s heart is to grow the kingdom. They want to see people saved. They want to see people helped. We have the same vision, that is what we want. That is what ministry is all about. It’s about helping people.”
As Joe continued his story of beginning here at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Newland in 2003 and then returning to Emmanuel Baptist as the pastor again in February of 2013 I sat with amazement and gratitude to hear Joe’s and Tiffany’s inspirational testimony. Plus, I was a little shocked because this young couple has been in active vocational ministry for the Lord for over 25 years, serving 5 different churches in the process. Joe is 49 years old but looks like he’s 30 years old and Tiffany looks young enough to be his daughter, even though she is only 2 years younger than Joe.
Here’s a brief recap of the wonderful testimony he shared with me via a Zoom video call, which we’re planning to put on our website after the magazine is published!
• They served together as associate pastor and wife beginning in 1999 in Mocksville, NC for 5 years.
• They came to Emmanuel Baptist Church in 2003 for 4 and ½ years.
• From there Joe served as an associate pastor for a year at a big church in Saginaw, Michigan where he learned a lot from a wise senior leader there.
• Then he accepted a call from a church in Eastern NC near Goldsboro where he served for 3 years.
• And now both Avery and recently Watauga County have been blessed to have them here for the last 12 years!!!!
In the process of all these moves and adventures Joe and Tiffany have had 2 more children, which I asked him about.
“We have four children now. In 2018 we began fostering two brothers. I believe it was 2021 or 2020 when the adoption became official.
“My daughter Brooke, who was 5 years old when we moved away from Newland, graduated in May from Lees McRae College with her master’s in teaching and then got married last weekend.
“Our son Landon is now a sophomore at Milligan University. He plays basketball and is on the track team at Milligan.”
The realization that Joe got to officiate his daughter’s wedding after all this flood drama that he had been through blew me away as I considered the resilience in this family that only God can give. And then he told me about the foster children that Tiffany and he adopted.
“Our oldest boy, who we adopted named Ryan is now a sophomore at Wake Tech in Raleigh. Our youngest son Carson just turned nine yesterday and he is in the third grade. We had three in college and one in elementary at one point. It is quite the experience.”
As we moved on in our interview, I couldn’t wait to hear how he and Tiffany took on the responsibility of managing Cornerstone Christian bookstore after my dear friends John and Pat Pope owned it 40 years.
“Approximately 2 years after we came back to Newland in 2013, Tiffany and I began to work for George and Megan Shinn as caretakers for their house at Linville Ridge, so it’s been about 10 years now since we’ve known the Shinn’s on a personal basis. So, we’ve known them for a long time now and they have become more like family. They treat us like family, and they love on our family and kids. They are so good to us.
“So, when the Shinn’s bought the store from the Pope’s, they did so with the stipulation from the Pope’s that it had to remain a Christian bookstore. That was George and Megan’s heart, for it to remain a Christian bookstore. They loved the store and wanted to see it go on. They want to see it built. Every dime that the store would make goes right back into the store—goes into the Lord’s work. Their heart is to grow the kingdom.
Volunteers and the wonderful people who brought items.
Joe’s church office.
Items upstairs before the downstairs was cleaned up.
The boy’s room.
The church van in flood waters.
“After settling in as the new owners George and Megan approached us and said they would like our help in starting the store. We began to help some and got more involved as we got closer to Christmas. After that holiday season he talked to my wife and I about managing the store for them. The reason that it does work out for us is that he knows our heart is the church and pastoring the church.
“He laid it out for us, the church comes first. He wanted us to manage the store with the understanding that you can drop things and get to do what you need to for the church. That was the only way it could work; most places wouldn’t afford you that kind of leeway. So, he understands that the Lord’s work is the church and is number one.
“But you know, we view Cornerstone as the Lord’s work; it’s a ministry. We don’t view it as just a business and they don’t view it as a business. Like I said, George and Megan’s heart is to grow the kingdom. They want to see people saved. They want to see people helped. We have the same vision, that is what we want. That is what ministry is all about. It’s about helping people.”
I love how the Lord put all that together for this great bookstore to be preserved as a landmark for Boone and a beacon to the whole region. When other bookstores are shutting down, I am grateful that Cornerstone Bookstore will remain. So, with that in mind, please share with our readers what your experience was like with hurricane Helene regarding your house, the church building, and Cornerstone. •
“We were at the store on Thursday September 26. My daughter Brooke and I were working that day. It was slow because of the rain, and we were getting ready to leave about five o’clock or so. We pulled out and got to the light there at Walmart when my phone rings. It was from Cornerstone.
“Madelyn, one of our workers, had called to tell me I should probably come back because the roof was leaking pretty bad. We had already put a plastic tub there. So, I ran to Lowe’s and grabbed black rubber seal, duct tape, some of the spray, whatever I could find. I couldn’t
Joe, Tiffany, Ryan, Landon, Brooke and Carson. What Fall usually looks like in our back yard.
get on the roof so I couldn’t fix it but had to figure out something. So, I sprayed it all and said, “alright, Lord there’s nothing I can do, just keep it dry.”
“We went home that night and of course the storm was raging all night at the house. At about 11 o’clock at night the water started coming into the house, into the garage. It wasn’t flooding the house, but the ground was so saturated, and it was springing up in the garage and in our back room. So, we didn’t have a shop vac, but we had a mini sump pump and a carpet cleaner with about a half-gallon capacity container on it. We ran that for about eight to nine hours straight to try and keep the water from getting into other parts of the house.
“Then around five in the morning the power went out. We have a generator that runs part of the house, so we ran drop cords to be able to get the sump pump to keep going. We were just exhausted, but we had to keep pumping that water.
“It was around nine o’clock in the morning, and my son came downstairs to tell us that a tree had just fallen on the house. At first, we thought he was joking but a tree had fallen on the house over his room. I went upstairs to find a huge tree had fallen and hit the edge of our house and now there is a big hole in the side of the house.
just asking him to come look at it. But we got it off the house and got it tarped up. It left probably a five-foot hole in the house. Later that afternoon we found out a much larger tree fell on my daughter’s future home. It did much more damage than what happened to ours.
“When it finally stopped raining, we had a minute or two to rest. My youth pastor’s family lives in Jonas Ridge and they were worried about a tree falling on their house, so they spent Thursday night at the church. They were sending us pictures Friday morning of the parking lot. The water was rising in the parking lot because we’re right on the creek. Then they sent a video of it running into the church building into the basement. We had about five or six inches of water in the church. It left mud everywhere. We had to tear all the carpet out of the classrooms.
“So naturally, my thoughts wondered about the store, it had only been pouring out when I left. If they were live, I would check the store cameras on my phone, but they eventually went out. Then I saw videos of the Walmart parking lot and water was everywhere. I told my wife the store is going to be demolished. I just thought there was no way with how much water there was. We had been praying for it to not be destroyed.
“It was pretty discouraging to say the least. My wife was steady as a rock, and I was just kind of discouraged and defeated. She was playing the role of the Holy Spirit while I’m falling apart with a tree in the house. She was the rock through the storm.
“So, I pulled myself together and called my neighbor, asking him to come look at it. And this is in the middle of the storm. He comes over full rain gear. He and his wife chainsaw the tree and get it cut up. I was
“To my surprise and lack of faith, I got a call from Madelyn that there was only a little bit of water on the tile in the front of the store in the foyer. We had some stuff that got damaged but everything else in the store looked good, no damage. We were so excited, praising the Lord. I think we opened back up Wednesday or Thursday, so we weren’t even closed for a week.
“The unique thing about the store is that there is a two-foot ledge that leads up to our property. If you step off that ledge into the road, you’re in a flood zone.
The house our daughter and her husband planned to live in. They had spent months working to get it ready to live in before the wedding.
But, if you step up to Cornerstone’s property, you’re no longer in the flood plain. So, we had little to no damage whatsoever in the store.
“That was just the Lord, I believe, protecting it and keeping his hand upon it. We are about 200300 yards away from Walmart that had three feet of water in it. We only had one or two little puddles, not much damage at all. It was the hand of God protecting that place.”
As we finished talking about Boone, I asked Joe how He has seen God’s Presence be manifest in the crippling devastation that hit Newland and many other parts of Avery County.
•
“The thing that has stood out to me has been the response from the church in all of this. I can’t speak for other counties, but I can speak for Avery County. Every church in the county, it seems, is stepping up in a major way. Shortly after this happened, we just opened the doors to become a supply center, and we started taking donations.
ers. Not just from this area but also from outside this area. I tell people often they didn’t teach a class on how to run a supply center during a natural disaster at Bible College. Or if they did, I missed it. So, we are doing all kinds of stuff on the fly. It is overwhelming the number of things that have come in. We have so much stuff that has come in. We joke that we probably have enough water to flood Avery County again. But that is a good problem to have, because we are going to need it. We had a hardware store in Illinois bring in a couple trailer loads of stuff from their store.
“So, the community response, not just Avery County, Watauga County, and Ashe County, but outside of our community has been really great. I think it just reminds you of the things you take for granted.
“The people of our church, I can’t brag on them enough, how they’ve shown the love of God. That’s kind of the theme of our church. We’ve got a big poster hanging up in our auditorium that says, “Love like Christ.” That’s been my message; this is our opportunity to do that. To love like Christ would love.
“In the three weeks that we’ve opened this, we’ve had easily 1,500 people come through to pick up food, supplies, coats, blankets, heaters, and more at the church. We’ve had outside help from churches and oth-
“For example, we had a lady who came through that had lost quite a bit. My wife was talking to her and the lady said that she would just like a clean towel. We had one we were able to give to her. Tears filled her eyes over a clean towel. Her son saw a case of Pepsi sitting over with some other supplies and said, “she won’t tell you this, but she’d like those Pepsi’s also.” That kind of thing we just take for granted.
“As I stated earlier, the whole purpose of the church is to serve and love like Christ. That is our goal. God has provided us this opportunity. We often joke that if you pray for patience, God’s going to give you the opportunities to be patient. He’s not going to pour the patience in your head. He’s going to present you with some opportunity to be patient.
Our daughter Brooke’s wedding on Oct 12th. Every detail for this day fell apart but the Lord stepped in and provided the most beautiful day.
“As the body of Christ, we ask God to open doors for us to serve. Well, this is an open door for the church to serve.
“As a Christian, as a child of God, as a pastor, I try to express to our church how fulfilling it is for me to see the people of our church sacrificing. These are people who have trees down on their property. These are people who have damage to their homes. These are people who have lost things of their own and yet they are giving 10+ hours a day organizing, sorting, and making boxes to give to others.
“As we look for opportunities to serve, the Lord presents us with those opportunities. We don’t get to pick and choose the opportunity; it’s just placed in front of us. What better way to show the love of Christ than the church opening its doors saying here’s food, water, blankets, whatever you need. When people ask why we are doing it, it’s because that’s what Jesus would do. It’s to show the love of Christ. This is the mission of the church!!
every morning and it is an opportunity for us to serve the community.
“Furthermore, we view Cornerstone as a lighthouse in Watauga County. We want it to be a place where people who are hurting, struggling, or suffering can step outside of the world. They can step outside of their struggles into a safe place where they can find people who care for them, people that will pray with them. Every one of our employees will stop and pray with you. It’s not just about coming to the store and spending money.
“As a Christian, as a child of God, as a pastor, I try to express to our church how fulfilling it is for me to see the people of our church sacrificing. These are people who have trees down on their property. These are people who have damage to their homes. These are people who have lost things of their own and yet they are giving 10+ hours a day organizing, sorting, and making boxes to give to others.”
“If you want to come, sit in the store for eight hours and drink free cups of coffee all day while reading a book, you are welcome to do so. If you just want to come in and listen to some good, godly music and sit in a place with some peace and quiet for 30 minutes, you can do that.
“So, as I already said, our mission here is synonymous with the mission of the Church that Jesus intended for His people to have. Cornerstone is a unique business. Obviously, it is a business; you must make money. If you don’t make money, you go out of business.
“But I know that was not Mr. Pope’s heart in starting the business. He didn’t want to get rich on Cornerstone. And I know the heart of George and Megan Shinn is not to get rich. George doesn’t take a penny. Matter of fact, he sinks money into it.
“So, the whole purpose for us is to serve people. That’s what we tell our employees. We have devotions
“We don’t pressure people to buy anything because we truly view Cornerstone as a ministry in which we get to try and love like Christ. If our heart is the heart of a servant, to serve others, the Lord always takes care of the other stuff.
“That is our focus at Cornerstone. That is what it was when Mr. and Mrs. Pope had it, and that is what George and Megan’s focus is. I can say that as someone who works closely with them. Every time I have talked to them since the storm they have asked if people are coming in asking for prayer or if we have been able to help people. That is what we are trying to do. God gives us that opportunity and I think that’s part of the reason why he protected the store.”
(Photo below) Bible school at Emmanuel.
A STORM LIKE NO OTHER, RIGHT IN OUR BACKYARD
Luther Harrison tells the story of the second deadliest hurricane in US history
By Ben Cox with Luther Harrison. Based on an interview with Luther on 10/22/24, 22 days after Hurricane Helene
PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
On September 26, 2024, we were diligently working on our lineup of stories for our 17 year anniversary Thanksgiving edition of The Journey Magazine. On September 27, that plan was swept away!
I still can’t even fully explain what that means, but I can say this: The challenges we are facing as a business in the region and also as longtime residents of Boone have been like nothing we have ever seen locally since moving here in 1977.
So, we decided to pivot from telling the testimonies that we were going to do to tell “Stories From the Storm.” Therefore, it’s only fitting that I should be sitting at my computer on 12/7/2024 putting the finishing touches on our last story for this edition with Luther Harrison.
Luther is the Vice President of North American Ministries for Samaritan’s Purse right here in the heart of the High Country. The ministry he heads specializes in disaster relief and oh what a disaster we have had!!
I asked Luther many questions about his Christian testimony, how he came to work with Samaritan’s Purse and his perspective on what hit us.
What I discovered in the process, is that Luther likes being a behind the scenes, get stuff done kind of guy. He is actually very uncomfortable in the spotlight. That’s why I’m especially grateful for his willingness to share his story with us and I think you will be too.
HOW LUTHER HARRISON BECAME A FOLLOWER OF JESUS
“I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home, and my mother and father were charter members of Greenway Baptist Church.
“My mom and dad were there, and mom was always really that strong, driven person, so when the doors were open, we were there. I remember growing up there under the ministry of Pastors C.O. Vance, Jay
Luther Harrison speaking at a Mayfield, KY New Home
Jones, Jerry Allen, Harold Bennett and David Luster. When I was 11 years of age, I went forward to ask Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior.
“I worked different kinds of jobs and became a volunteer fireman when I turned 18.
“The Boone fire department was right beside the police station and one day the chief suggested that I should really look into Law Enforcement and because I knew most of the guys that worked there, I got signed up in 1980 and then worked there till 1994. For five years I was in uniform, and then the last nine I was in investigations .
“Anyone who serves in a position like I did with the Boone police department gets to know lots of people in the community and many on a first name basis. I
loved what I did and just figured it would be my career path for life. But then God started stirring things up in my heart and I slowly began to realize that He had a different plan for my life.
“I now realize that when the Lord begins to stir that sort of thing up in your heart, the feeling will keep getting stronger and stronger! I still remember the night when I sat down at the kitchen cabinet tabletop to write my resignation letter.
“I had not looked for a job. I felt like God was telling me he wanted me to just step out in faith and that he had something new for me. So my neighbors on the hill above me started shooting fireworks, not the cheap bottle rockets, but pretty ones. And I’m like, “Alright, Lord, I get it. Independence, here we go!”
“And people said, you know, the grass may not be greener on the other side, but I thought I’ve gotta be obedient and do this.
“As a police officer I tried to be a strong witness to people, even the ones who were challenging. I wanted them to know that even though they were guilty of breaking the law, that God offers forgiveness. So I think people did realize I had a witness of faith in Christ.
“I loved what I did and just figured it would be my career path for life. But then God started stirring things up in my heart and I slowly began to realize that He had a different plan for my life. I now realize that when the Lord begins to stir that sort of thing up in your heart, the feeling will keep getting stronger and stronger! I still remember the night when I sat down at the kitchen cabinet tabletop to write my resignation letter.”
“I remember we were helping usher and work with the crowds at a Bailey Smith crusade at Farthing Auditorium in 1989. In one of the meetings, Bailey made a comment that just knocked me off my feet. It caused me to stop and seriously consider my salvation. He said, “if you’re 99.9% sure that you’re saved, you’re 100% lost.
“Then I started thinking, Did I really know what I was doing at 11? Was I just going through the motions of church? And that was the day I got things right with God!
Home Dedication Ceremony following the 2021 Tornado
“At that time I realized that getting right with God is a life insurance policy that we don’t pay premiums on. God has already paid the price through Jesus’ death on the Cross and His resurrection sealed the deal! So, it’s a FREE policy!!!
“With the realization of that truth planted deeply in my heart, I said, “You can have it all Lord!”.
HOW LUTHER BECAME A SAMARITAN’S PURSE EMPLOYEE
“At the time, I did not realize that this encounter with the Holy Spirit would lay the foundation of the “leap of faith” I mentioned earlier. Did I know at the time that Samaritan’s Purse would be the place I landed when I took that leap of faith? No, I did not! But here’s a little more detail about how that happened.
When I resigned from the Police Department, one of the local attorneys who I was conversing with said, ‘Now what are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know.” And he said, “You should go talk to the people at Samaritan’s Purse.”
MOVING THE NORTH AMERICAN DISASTER RELIEF MINISTRIES TO WILKES COUNTY
“For years I worked in the Boone office, but we outgrew our space, so we moved down to North Wilkesboro back in 2009. Coca Cola Bottling had an old plant there and donated it to the ministry. So, our volunteers and staff renovated it for our North American Disaster Relief Ministries, and it was one of the best things that could have happened for us then because when a storm hits, it takes us 20 minutes to hit Interstate 77 and we can deploy to wherever we’re needed.
*And now we’ve even added other offices in Capell, Texas and another in Fullerton, California. So our disaster equipment, over 450 pieces, are now staged at different locations across the US, so we can respond to disasters much more quickly.
“So I went out there, filled out an application and started as a temporary associate that eventually grew into a full time position. Now, 28 years later, Franklin Graham has entrusted me with the opportunity to work for both Samaritan’s Purse and also the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
“And, one of the biggest blessings about starting with Samaritan’s Purse at the Boone campus is that it sits on my grandparents’ old farm land. When I was a kid, that was a gravel road and I had lots of cousins who played ball on that land and fished in the creek.
“You look at it now, and what God has used that land for is amazing, I would have never imagined that when I was a youngster playing out there in the fields.
“In addition to this, Lowe’s had a 400,000 square foot office space that they tore down, so we have built our Wilkes warehouse there. This is where our field hospitals, our disaster relief plastic and other supplies are stored, and gives us a great place to stage our equipment.
“We continue to see how God helps us to expand our borders. I always tell people, it’s like the fishes and loaves, where God has taken a little and He’s expanded it and multiplied it immeasurably.
GOING OUT IN JESUS’ NAME EVERYWHERE WE GO!
“A big reason I think we’re experiencing these many blessings is because of Franklin Graham’s heart for the lost and people who are hurting, whether it’s a disaster, or war, or famine, disease, whatever the situation is. We are there as sort of a mobile church.
Luther Harrison speaking with Samaritan’s Purse volunteers.
“Samaritan’s Purse is not a church, but we are an evangelical Christian relief organization. So when we respond to disasters and storms in life, the physical work that we do earns us the privilege to share why we do what we do.
“Therefore, when people allow us to, we share with them about the great gift of salvation through Jesus Christ and the debt that He paid on the cross for each one of us. We want everyone that we encounter to understand what makes us want to go out and find those people in the ditches of life after a storm has just flooded their home, or a hurricane just blew their house apart, or a tornado broke a tree across the roof. We go out in Jesus’ name everywhere we go!
“That’s why every orange t-shirt you see our volunteers wearing says, “Helping in Jesus’ name.” Our trucks have that same decal on them too. We don’t want anyone to be confused about who we work for and who we represent.”
DISASTER RELIEF IN OUR OWN BACKYARD
I know that you have been involved with disaster relief in catastrophic situations like we
have just experienced here in the Northwest NC & Eastern Tennessee mountains. 22 days ago on September 27, 2024 our world was rocked.
Did you have any idea, as your team was tracking the storm forecasts, how horrific this storm would be? •
“Well, it spun up quickly down in the Gulf, and we watched the water temperatures, and it had the perfect ingredients to make it a strong storm. At that time, we were looking more toward Florida and Georgia as having the predominant damage.
“Then it showed the path of the storm coming north and instead of turning to the right and moving out to the Atlantic, the forecast had it coming up, then turning left instead into the Tennessee Valley. We had no idea the amount of rain that it was going to produce.
“Well, what happened to this storm? Remember, it had already been raining since Wednesday before the heavy rains and wind came in on Thursday night and into Friday September 27. The ground was already soft, and when it landed over top of these mountains, the creeks, the roads, everything, it couldn’t handle the amount of rain we received--it was unbelievable. Though
Luther Harrison speaking with a Samaritan’s Purse volunteer in from the Rapid Response Team Mobile Ministry Unit.
“And, one of the biggest blessings about starting with Samaritan’s Purse at the Boone campus is that it sits on my grandparents’ old farm land. When I was a kid, that was a gravel road and I had lots of cousins who played ball on that land and fished in the creek. You look at it now, and what God has used that land for is amazing, I would have never imagined that when I was a youngster playing out there in the fields.”
I have seen horrific damage with other storms in my career here, I would never have anticipated this much damage, but then we started getting the reports! So, we knew we’ve got to really respond quickly to our neighbors.
“Many people in our area didn’t really know what Samaritan’s Purse does other than the Operation Christmas Child, the shoe box program. That is a great program, and Operation Christmas Child has given us a network of over 90,000 churches in the US. So, when these storms hit, that’s our first alert system.
“We call those churches, and they can give us a play by play of what they’re seeing as it’s happening in their local area. Many times, assessments from government agencies and emergency management take a little while. That’s why we depend on the church. We always want to support the church and be in alignment with the church.
“So, we set up here in Boone at Alliance Bible Fellowship. We set up down in Asheville at the Billy Graham Training Center, called The Cove. They are usually booked solid at this time of year for Bible training seminars and other Christ-centered events, but they canceled all those events because of the storm and invited us to use their facility as a base of operations for our volunteer cleanup workers to stay.
“From there we were able to send teams to the surrounding areas in Buncombe county. We also were able to assist Mitchell and Yancey counties as we set up in Burnsville at Higgins Methodist Church. So, God just opened those 3 doors.
“When you have over 7000 families calling and asking for help, it’s a little overwhelming. And as far as we know today this storm has already taken over 260 lives, and there’s about 90 people that are still unaccounted for. The grief that causes for friends, family members and the whole community is heavy and that’s why our chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team come and walk in and walk beside these families and try to under gird them.
“The chaplains let them know that we live in a broken world where we see bad things happen to good people and bad people. But then, when you see first-hand these storms take people’s lives, it’s hard. For example, over south of Asheville one family witnessed 11 members of their family swept away in the mudslides and floodwater.
“Another Christian man and his wife and their small child, had gotten up on the roof, hoping someone would come by and rescue them, and the house collapsed underneath them, and they perished.
Luther Harrison on site following tornadoes in Little Rock, AK
“In the first 3 weeks alone following the storm, over 20,000 volunteers came to put on our orange t-shirt and serve with Samaritan’s Purse to muck out a house, a basement, cut a tree, or tarp a roof. It’s a ministry of presence and a way that God gives us the name and address of a person who called and said, ‘I need help.’’
THE CHAPLAIN MINISTRY WAS BIRTHED IN NYC IN SEPT. OF 2001
At this pivotal moment in our interview, I was glad to hear Luther talk about how the Chaplaincy ministry began in 2001, because I was privileged to be a part of that ministry back in the day!
It was after the terrorist bombings in NYC where over 5000 people lost their lives when domestic airlines were hijacked by men who were trained by Osama Bin Laden to wage war on America.
At the time, I was working for the company that I now own, until I could get back into full time Christian ministry. Alan Blume, the pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church at the time, called me and suggested I should consider going up to NYC to be a part of a grief counseling team with Samaritan’s Purse. So I thought I would deploy there for a week and come back to Boone.
However, I was offered a temporary position by Kenny Isaacs to be the Prayer Coordinator at the Billy Graham Prayer Center. So I served there from September 2001 through December and it had a major impact on my life and ministry when I returned home to Boone again.
Here’s what Luther said about the significance of that time in regards to the Chaplain Ministry of the BGEA: •
“When Franklin Graham and other members of the Samaritan’s Purse team came to assess how they could help, Franklin was deeply moved. He went up there and described how everybody was just standing there with this look of deep grief on their faces. And they’re holding up a picture of someone, just trying to find out that this person survived. And that’s where the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplaincy program started.
“Now we have recruited over 2,000 chaplains that are willing to go out with us and serve when disasters strike. Whether a natural disaster, or man-made civil unrest like in Paris, France, Munich, Germany, Fergu-
son, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland, these Chaplains are willing to go and minister to the hurting.. And of course they are now a vital part of how Samaritan’s Purse responds to disasters.
“So together with Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, we meet the physical, spiritual and emotional needs to try to help these families understand that God is walking with them every step of the way! Plus, every family we help gets a copy of “The Billy Graham Training Center Bible.”
“This Bible was specially designed by Billy Graham to answer 50 of the toughest questions he had been asked in his many years of preaching Jesus to the nations. You’ll find questions in there like, “If your God loves me why did I lose my loved one?” or “Why was my house destroyed?” And the answers steer them to the chapters and verses in the Bible where God Himself answers those questions for us.”
After explaining the partnership of SP and the BGEA to help with disasters all over the world, we now circled back to talk more specifically about what’s happening here closer to Watauga county.
“As I mentioned before, due to the magnitude of this storm, we launched into a bigger program than we usually do in disaster relief. For example, because a lot of people could not get power to their oxygen machines that help keep them alive, we also deployed our medical teams to respond. So, we set up at Watauga Medical Center and in Avery County at Cannon Memorial Hospital to provide oxygen there or to refill oxygen tanks.
“We set up here in Boone at Alliance Bible Fellowship where Pastors Scott Andrews and Michael Talley have graciously invited us to set up our base to house our volunteers, staff, host orientation in the main sanctuary and fill the parking lot with trucks, tools, etc..
“We’ve had maximum capacity there every Saturday at Alliance Church as people sacrifice their weekend to come and help. Plus, we have daily training sessions too which we make sure to saturate with prayer.
“As a former volunteer fireman and police officer I have known first-hand how important first responders are but through what we’ve seen happening at ABF and other mountain churches we’re seeing the church as first responders too. Here in Boone our Walmart
store got flooded out but now many church buildings are becoming like Walmart where donated goods and food and clothes and toiletries are being distributed by church members.”
As I have attested in other articles in this magazine, the Walmart vibe was happening in churches throughout the region.
“Samaritan’s
But to be able to tell stories from the storm in a more accurate way I have logged lots of times not only interviewing people but also doing volunteer work myself. Since ABF is my church home, I was able to volunteer there and also see firsthand Samaritan’s Purse’s work there.
And it was intriguing for me to see firsthand that the only way you could differentiate who was working for Samaritan’s Purse from who was working with Alliance Bible Fellowship was because Samaritan’s Purse had the orange shirts and Alliance had the yellow shirts.
But now I’d like to refocus our attention again to the broader scope of what you have had to do in this storm as opposed to other places where you’ve been in North America.
“This storm had trillions of gallons of rain that fell out of the sky washing so many roads and driveways away. And the landslides were horrific.
Purse is not a church, but we are an evangelical Christian relief organization. So when we respond to disasters and storms in life, the physical work that we do earns us the privilege to share why we do what we do.”
“This hurricane has turned out to be the second deadliest hurricane ever in the United States that hit Florida, hit Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and then Tennessee. But this is our hometown, and a lot of these families and friends of ours that got hit from this storm, so of course we wanted to immediately help them.
“Due to the damage that this storm caused, this is the first time that I ever recall where we were allowed to provide potable water in two counties here in western North Carolina. Usually, the health department must be involved with that, but due to the severity and extent of the need, they were open to us assisting in this way.
“In regard to Hurricane Helene, I have never seen the High Country pounded this hard.
“So, our water sanitation teams set up water stations where the water is pumped and filtered on location. They do this all over the world but were able to provide this service to our neighbors
“And as I mentioned earlier, there were so many roads and neighborhoods that were cut off and completely inaccessible.
Edward Graham is now Samaritan’s Purse’s Chief Operating Officer. Because of Edward’s military background he was able to get helicopter support like we have never utilized before, and we needed every bit of it.
L. Harrison with Franklin Graham at Alliance Bible Fellowship, Boone, NC.
“We started having more and more people offer their personal helicopters to help us with relief. There are a lot of people who have their own private helicopters for business. The NASCAR teams, I know, Coach Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendricks, they sent their helicopters.
“The military brought three Chinooks, and you’ve seen those flying around town, the two bladed helicopters, and then three Black Hawks were here that were leased to provide transportation. So, we have had 357 helicopter missions so far!! This was the largest non-Military Airlift in the United States.
The church is united with Samaritan’s Purse in our desire to keep revealing Jesus’ compassion for the suffering we’re going through.
“One retired four-star general came here out of the goodness of his heart, because he saw what we were doing. You can see him and find out more of his story on our website.
“To see God move like this reminds us that He always has a bigger plan. Sometimes we can make plans, but he determines our steps, and those helicopters were an amazing part of His plan to help us in the High County. It enables us to go to these cut off communities.
“Through these helicopter missions we’ve been able to provide over 3000 generators and other needed supplies too. They’ve been providing propane and the heaters that go with them. Plus, charcoal grills, blankets, food products, water, I mean, everything you could imagine. Cold weather clothing and sleeping bags are important too because a lot of the people who lost houses just got out with the clothing on their backs.
“And just to think, all of those helicopters launched right out of Boone International Airport, as we call it now. Because of the storm, it got a bigger claim to fame!”
•
As I try to find a place to conclude this article, it’s only fitting to focus on Samaritan Purse’s long term recovery plans to continue its work with the churches in this region.
I say that with the wider understanding I have gained from interacting with other organizations that are working on long term recovery plans. The impact of this storm is going to be felt for many years, and I am so grateful for all that you and your teams are doing to help us. •
“Like the parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10: 25-37, our organization is always thinking about how to keep helping those in need. In this case we’re putting a plan together because we still have over 4000 families that are needing help. And we’re going to try to figure out who is at risk of falling through the cracks. These are the people who had no insurance; it’s the elderly; the handicapped, the single moms, and people we can come alongside and help!
“Though we are a licensed general contractor here in North Carolina, we’re not trying to take money from the table for the builders that are out here. But we will work for the people who can’t afford to pay them. And though we certainly realize that recovering from this is going to take a while, we look forward to seeing what the next chapter of Hurricane Helene’s recovery will be.
“I’m very honored that we get to go out and see people that are coming from all walks of life to volunteer their time and their talent and their sweat equity to be the hands and feet of Christ. Now, I just tell people I’m a Christian travel agent. My job is to get you where you need to be to do the work, He’s called you to do.”
“To see God move like this reminds us that He always has a bigger plan. Sometimes we can make plans, but he determines our steps, and those helicopters were an amazing part of His plan...”
Luther Harrison with Pastor Scott Andrews at Alliance Bible Fellowship, Boone, NC
does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fade-less under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fade out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
1 Corinthians 13:13 and so faith, hope, love abide... of these three; but the greatest of these is love.*
Hi, I’m Dr. Derrick Denman, DC., PA. Let me personally invite you to our office. We’re conveniently located at the Shops @ Shadowline near Harris Teeter. Feel free to stop in, allowing me to shake your hand and take a few minutes for a quick office tour! We enjoy introducing folks to our patients, who’ve benefitted from our services. Their testimonials offer hope and encouragement to others! Don’t suffer another day. There is a better way, and… We’re Here to Help! We offer an Initial,
